1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the coke-and-chemical industry and more particularly to coke dry quenching plants.
It is most expedient to employ the present invention in combination with modern high-efficiency coke oven batteries.
2. Previous Art
As is generally known, the coke production process ends with the delivery of coke from ovens at a temperature of 950.degree.-1100.degree. C. To prevent incandescent coke from burning after discharging from the oven, and to make it suitable for transportation and storage, its temperature must be decreased down to 250.degree.-100.degree. C., i.e. coke must be quenched.
Dry quenching, the most progressive method of coke quenching, makes it possible not only to improve the quality of the coke, but also the technical and economic factors of blast-furnace smelting, the working conditions in coke oven plants, as well as to solve to a considerable extent the problem of the protection of environment against harmful impurities.
Today all newly-built coke batteries are provided with coke dry quenching plants (now and in the remainder of the specification abbreviated as CDQP). Such plants may have a great variety of embodiments.
Thus, for instance, known in the art is a coke dry quenching plant (cf. M.G. Teplinsky and others. Sukhoye tushenie koksa. "Metallurgia." 1971. p. 52) comprising quenching chambers arranged in a row parallel to the front of the coke ovens. All the quenching chambers are encased in a metal framework in whose upper part there are rails for lifts to move on. One hoisting shaft is provided for a group of quenching chambers (2-4 chambers), the hoisting shafts being arranged in a row with the quenching chambers. In the lower part of each of the shafts there is mounted a means for pulling off a car body with incandescent coke from the carriage of a coke-carrying car, and for transferring the body to the hoisting shaft centre. It should be pointed out that incandescent coke is delivered to the chambers by two coke-carrying cars which are transferred by an electric locomotive, parallel to the front of the quenching chambers.
In the above coke dry quenching plant, however, the body with incandescent coke is transported for a considerable distance past a number of the quenching chambers before coke is discharged to one of the chambers. For instance, to charge the chamber which is the fourth in succession from the shaft, the body has to cover the distance of over 50 meters. During this time, the incandescent coke has thermal effect not only on the body itself, but also on the CDQP framework and the lift, which results in a premature damage or intensive wearing of the equipment, in the arising of emergency situations, and a decrease of the CDQP operation efficiency as a whole. Machines' work schedule becomes more complicated and extended in time. Coke burning proceeds at a higher rate. The employment of the means for pulling off the body with incandescent coke from the carriage of the coke-carrying car also decreases the plant efficiency. In addition, during work, the number of runs of the electric locomotive with the two coke-carrying cars to one and the same shaft will depend on the number of quenching chambers to be served. As a result, thermal effect upon the CDQP structures increases.
To a certain extent the above drawbacks are eliminated in a coke dry quenching plant (cf. N. K. Kulakov and V. S. Kononenko. Sravnitelnaya kharakteristika raboty sovetskoi i frantsuzskoi ustanovok sukhogo tushenia koksa. "Koks i Khimia," 1975, No. 5, pp. 22-25). Which comprises vertical quenching chambers arranged in a row and having upper charging holes, and also hoisting shafts, each located opposite a corresponding quenching chamber. Each of the hoisting shafts in the present plant is provided with a lift having, in turn, a carriage for transferring a coke-loaded body from the hoisting shaft to the quenching chamber charging hole. Incandescent coke is delivered to the chambers by two coke-carryng cars transported by an electric locomotive.
With such a design of the CDQP, the distance covered by the lift and the car body is less than that in the aforedescribed embodiment, though its technical realization is somewhat complicated. Thus, an eight-chamber CDQP must have eight hoisting shafts and eight lifts. In addition, machines' work schedule becomes more complicated as a result of operations carried out by the coke-carrying cars. When using two coke-carrying cars, the electric locomotive has to make two runs to the same shaft in order to pass the body with incandescent coke thereinto, and then to take back the empty body. While receiving the empty body, the electric locomotive brings another body loaded with incandescent coke to the shaft, thereby increasing thermal effect upon the CDQP structures.